Well, hello there! Welcome to the first edition of my monthly critique section. I was hired recently by ENC to write articles about already existent articles… If you ask me, I think they are running out of ideas but anyway! Let the show begin!
This month’s featured writer is STAREYe. How did he get the honor of being the first ever writer to receive this very impressive honor? The answer is simple: he was the winner of the very prestigious contest #2 of ENC. Lucky for me because I could never select a particular writer with all of ENC’s great writers… Well the article I selected for this critique is Saturn Valley written in 2003.
STAREYe’s second article starts very well. He starts by his trademark: mentioning stuff from other articles. That is always fun and it shows that the writer has “culture”. He made really clear the reason why the Helpful Stranger decided to write this article. When it’s clear, it usually doesn’t get people confused. Confusion is normally bad but some intentional confusion can be good.
The rest of the article is very good too. He mixes EB facts with imagination. This is the winning recipe for a good ENC article.
Now let’s compare this article to his latest article Oh Sure, Blame the Sea Monster. STAREYe’s second article wasn’t as good as this last one. Why? Practice! His style evolved with time. I really like all of his article, Reporter Everling and his funny interviews, etc. However, this article is far from the other. It delivers a very good argumentation from the Kraken, a creature that I never suspected to see showing feelings and emotions… Wow!
In conclusion, I have only two things to say to STAREYe: Keep up the good work and thanks for being one of ENC’s hardcore supporters!